Released in the UK in September 1973, Sladest emulated recent Slade singles by
going straight to the top of the charts. After relinquishing the summit and
hovering around the Top Ten towards the end of the year, it climbed back up to
the Number One spot in early 1974 in the wake of the huge success of their next
single Merry Xmas Everybody.

That seasonal smash wasn’t included on the album, but Sladest did contain all of Slade’s hits
up to that point, as well as several singles released prior to their chart breakthrough
and a handful of tracks from their underrated second album (released late in
1970), Play It Loud.

Salvo’s version has been expanded by the inclusion of three
further highlights from the period concerned - the No. 2 hit My Friend Stan, its no-nonsense, rocking
B-side My Town and the ingenious
Django Reinhardt / Stephane Grappelli pastiche Kill ‘Em At The Hot
Club Tonite (the
B-side of Skweeze Me Pleeze Me) -
plus a previously unreleased version of Hear
Me Calling, the track with which they opened their live show for many
years. The latter recording, more tightly structured than the classic,
build-to-a-roar Slade Alive version (though featuring an almost
identical guitar solo from Dave Hill), lay entirely forgotten until recently
discovered on a vinyl acetate – which was once the property of drummer Don
Powell - and serves to further strengthen the appeal of what is, to many,
Slade’s strongest album. Capturing the band at the height of the glam rock
fame, it contains some of the very best pop songs of the seventies.